Just in case anybody is curious, no, I haven't forgot that the Yamanaka Clan exists.

However, while Sora herself hasn't had her mind searched, there's nothing to say that Karatachi and her father haven't been checked with it, which would lend credence to why Konoha are so accommodating to them, the information they possessed could potentially have been far more than expected, making them more valuable. I do have my own vague thought for why their treatment is so preferential, but I don't know if it'd pan out well.

Also, I want to ask how people would feel if Sora suddenly got a really big level-increase over the course of a few months. There is a reason for it, she isn't going to find a super-magical water droplet which gives her ten million experience suddenly, but there is something I've been writing in a later chapter which I forgot to apply the intelligence increase to, and as such she would jump up to...well, let's just say her level would go over level 100 and leave it at that.

Do people want to see her suddenly get buffed up massively is basically the question, because I know people like overpowered characters, but at the same time might not want it to be so fast.

Chapter 14


After talking it through with Karatachi and her father, Sora settled on her decision, and not too long after that the Hokage re-entered the room.

The only thing Sora was worried about was what would actually happen to her if she decided that she wanted to be a civilian, though it seemed she had little to worry about as the Hokage placated her with the same charismatic smile. "You'll be under observation for a while, leaving the village will require my official seal of approval, and using Jutsus outside of training grounds will be barred, including wall-walking. However, you won't be prevented from continuing to train if that is what you want. That does come with the stipulation that when you are older you may be called upon to aid in Konoha's defence in the case of an enemy attack."

Sora nodded, agreeing to that easily. She could already tell that Konoha was being hellishly lenient in not sealing her chakra or conscripting her into their forces, which made her wonder if Karatachi had given them something literally fucking groundbreaking that they could use, since she highly doubted other defectors would be allowed to train themselves without being a part of their armed forces. "And, other than that, is there anything else that I'd need to know?"

"Not really. Since you became an official genin in Kirigakure, that means that legally you are an adult, and clearly mentally mature enough for such a responsibility, so I see no need to revoke that. However, your parents will of course still hold parental authority over you." He said with a grin that was so utterly out of place with the fact that he was the Hokage that she couldn't help but laugh a little, which simply made his grin turn into an earnest smile. "I know that if we had met only weeks before it would be with weapons in our hands, but I want you to understand that I am not an enemy." He then rubbed at the back of his head, shrugging as he did so, though still with that smile on his face.

"I'm just your Hokage now."


"Oh, come in now, you must be Sora-chan then?"

Leaning her head in through the door, Sora blinked at the figure of a red-headed woman sat beside a bed, ink, brushes and other Fuinjutsu supplies arrayed on the table beside her. "That's me. I'm guessing you're the Fuinjutsu Master who is 'the best in the Elemental Nations' and 'able to write snowfall and stars into existence'." Sora said with a wry grin, her grin widening at the slight blush that dusted the woman's face.

"Don't worry, I'll be sure to remind our dear Hokage that flattery will get him nowhere. Now then, enough about me, today is about you and that Byakugan in your head. Don't want you going around seeing things you shouldn't after all, and so, well..." The woman made a clicking sound with her mouth, gesturing at the bed in front of her. As Sora had no reason to refuse of delay she moved to lay down, immediately closing her left eye.

"So, are you really a Fuinjutsu Master, or was the Hokage just trying to make me feel better?" The woman chuckled, not looking over from where she was setting up her items, preparing the ink properly. She lifted a small piece of paper and gave it to her, upon which she saw a frankly dizzyingly complicated Fuinjutsu inscribed upon it. "You just made this out of boredom then?" The woman nodded, shrugging lightly.

"Well, I had nothing better to do and I brought spares of everything so I figured why not. Keep it if you want, it's just a storage scroll." Sora raised an eyebrow, looking at the scroll which didn't resemble any storage Fuinjutsu she'd ever seen. "Oh, not a standard storage scroll, it's my own style. Bigger on the inside, cheaper to insert and remove items, and easily modifiable. Do you know what modular is?"

Sora froze, looking first at the scroll, then at the woman, then back at the scroll. "Okay, I believe you. Making something out of ink that you can modularly attach things to is...scary." The woman laughed, and as she turned Sora's gaze was attracted to her hair. "Wait...oh my god that's awesome, you're an Uzumaki aren't you?" Sora said with a wide smile, only just then putting it together as she recalled the Uzumaki Descendant perk that she had ignored, since an extremely high chance of being hunted down for being an Uzumaki didn't sound worth it at all to her.

The woman herself turned to look at her curiously. "Not many people remember the Uzumaki anymore." Her face turned solemn and sad for a moment before perking up as she smiled. "How did you learn of my clan? Personal interest in us, or maybe when researching Fuinjutsu?" Sora shrugged, not actually sure what answer would even be good since she only knew of the Uzumaki because of her perk selection screen. "Well, not like it matters. If any of my family were still around they'd have come here by now, it's no secret that there's a red-haired Uzumaki in Konoha."

Frowning, Sora reached out and touched her arm, attracting her attention. "Maybe they are still out there, they just don't know you're here. Who knows, maybe they sit outside every night looking up at the moon and wondering whether they are also the last of their clan. You've just got to keep on trundling along." She then dipped her head as the woman laughed and reached out to tousle her own dark crimson hair, much darker than the Uzumaki's own bright crimson hair.

"You know, when I first saw your picture I thought there was a chance you were an Uzumaki as well, but no, not only is your hair too close to black, but if you were an Uzumaki you'd be throwing a fit over that scroll I gave you." Sora looked down at it and realized that it wasn't just her making it out of boredom, it was a test to see if she was an Uzumaki, and her reaction was obviously telling. "Yeah, no Uzumaki would be able to resist giving that scroll a close examination, but you just treated it like a kind gift."

Sora shrugged, fiddling with the scroll a little. "Well, it was a kind gift, though I'm not actually sure if I'll be allowed to use it, I'm not allowed to use Jutsus outside of training grounds and I don't know if that extends to scrolls. But hey, it was my own choice, gotta own it, right?" The woman laughed at that, quickly waving her hand to placate her even though Sora wasn't annoyed at her.

"No, I just found it funny. Storage scrolls are perfectly allowed, even civilians can use them, all you need is to be able to actually conduct chakra in some manner. Any kind of combat-based scroll though is completely banned to non-shinobi, for obvious reasons. Sealing and utility scrolls are a little bit different, you can have them but cannot use them out in public, only on your own property, or with explicit permission of the owner of that property, or in a training ground, as you mentioned. Now then, are you ready?"

Sora nodded, closing her left eye again and relaxing. "Okay, I'll explain exactly what's going to happen step by step before we start, alright? She nodded again, watching as the woman started to gesture at the stuff on her table. "First, I'm going to apply this body-lock seal just above your navel. It's weak, you can test it for yourself if you wish, all it's there for is to keep your muscles from twitching, stopping you from moving and potentially breaking the seal."

"Next, I'll take this brush and begin applying chakra-activated ink in a fine pattern over your eyelid, which will then condense into a smaller array. That will be repeated for a total of seven times, and then each array will be linked together, forming the completed seal that will block your Byakugan, though it won't affect your normal direct vision, only the extrasensory vision that your eye would typically grant. The final seal, well, you have a choice between having it be condensed into a small black dot at the top of your eyelid, or if you want I can cover it with an additional array which would look like a tattoo."

Laying there, Sora listened quietly and unobtrusively as the woman explained the procedure to her, eventually humming when she was done. "Alright, that sounds fine, and I doubt you'd need a reason to lie to apply a seal to me, you could easily just slam it on me, so I'm fine with that. As for the seal, what would it look like if I wanted to have it covered?" The woman turned and picked up a small book, flicking through the pages before handing it to her.

Inside was a whole bunch of pictures of different small tattoo designs. Sora looked through them all, quirking her mouth to the side. They were mainly just different oddities, like a ring of roses, an ouroboros symbol, all kinds of different little features. Sora eventually closed the book and handed it back to the woman with a shake of her head. "I'll just have it be made into a black dot, please. So all I have to do is make sure I don't channel any chakra to break the seal?" The woman nodded in response, picking said seal up from the table.

"This might feel a little bit strange, but don't worry, that's just your brain being unconsciously confused by what's going on." She then took ahold of the hem of Sora's shirt and lifted it just enough to apply the seal and activate it, then lowered her shirt again. Immediately Sora felt something like a chill run through her body, and her first immediate instinct was to twitch her limbs, though she clamped down on that instinct hard, making sure not to use any chakra as she laid on the bed and used her Byakugan to watch as the Uzumaki examine her keenly before smiling. "Good girl, usually people will accidentally break the seal at least once."

Sora would have smiled back at her but she was of course quite frozen at that moment in time. She didn't want to test the seal even a little, so didn't try anything dubious, she was simply patient as she lay there. The Uzumaki didn't take long to lift an ink bottle within which was an incredibly thin and fine brush, moving to lean over her slightly. She then deftly removed the brush from the bottle, no excess ink drops falling as she lowered the brush-tip to her closed eye and began to cover her entire eyelid with intricate Fuinjutsu patterns.

It was honestly weird being able to see her working clearly, yet not being able to feel the brush on her eyelid whatsoever. After just a few minutes her eyelid was covered with a mesmerising Fuinjutsu pattern which looked like a hilariously complicated tattoo, and just a moment later she witnessed as the woman formed a hand seal and placed her palm over her eye, causing the pattern to shrink down towards one point, moving it off to the side of her eyelid and out of the way.

When it was finished condensing, the woman then began applying more ink to her eye, repeating the process another six times and creating a circle of condensed seals. She interconnected them all with an additional array, forming all seven into one cohesive and really complicated seal before finally, she activated it, immediately blinding Sora to what was going on, limiting her vision merely to what she could see directly out of her open right eye.

Quite frankly, suddenly going from being able to see the entire room to only being able to look straight up at the ceiling and seeing the top of the Uzumaki's red hair was really disorienting and uncomfortable, though Sora resolutely didn't try to move or do anything disruptive to the seal pinning her as the woman continued doing something, presumably moving the seal and shrinking it down again.

After another minute where the woman was probably testing to make sure that the seal was fully functional, she raised her shirt to remove the seal tag, allowing her to move again, which immediately filled her entire body with a pins-and-needles sensation which was rather discomforting. "Sorry, forgot to warn you about that. You won't have any damage or anything, just some uncomfortable feelings for a few minutes before your body sorts itself out." She then picked up a small hand-mirror and offered it to her. "It'll be right up at the top of your eyelid, so unless your eye is shut it won't be visible at all."

Sora nodded, taking the mirror and angling it so she could see her left eye with her right as she closed that eye, then pulled on it slightly to expose the small black spot, smaller than a freckle, which was now marked on her left eyelid. "That looks fine, thank you. And thanks for putting it so high up, you were right, nobody would even notice it." The woman rubbed her neck sheepishly, reminding her quite a lot of the Hokage as she did so.

"It's no big deal, I just figured you wouldn't want to go around being called something stupid like 'black-spot eye' or something equally dumb."


After having her Byakugan sealed, Sora then spent a few hours in an office with her father and Karatachi filling out forms.

Thankfully her ones were a lot shorter and simpler than theirs, probably because theirs also regarded her, whereas she only had to write about herself. They were her legal guardians after all. One particular section gave Sora a perfect opportunity though, as she glanced up from the page to look directly at Karatachi. Rather than talk around it, Sora directly asked. "Karatachi-san?" The woman rose her head to look at her with a small smile. "Are you my mother?"

The woman didn't look too phased by what she said, which was a bit of a shame since she was hoping for at least somewhat of a reaction, but she looked at her father before turning back to face her after he rolled his eyes. "I told him you'd ask something like that sometime soon, he thought you wouldn't ask until you were older. As for whether I'm your mother, well, what do you think?"

Sora hummed, tipping her head to one side. "I know you gave up way too much for me and my father to just be his old teammate, that you were very protective and supportive of me. But what really tipped me off was something my father told me when I explained why I beat those three boys nearly to death near the docks. I am apparently just like my mother, leaping into combat headfirst and not thinking things through. Sound familiar?" Sora then laughed as Karatachi turned to look at her father, who immediately adopted the very wise expression of looking incredibly interested in his own forms.

"Well, you guessed right. You've been thinking about this for a while then haven't you?" Karatachi...her mother. said, reaching over to tousle her hair gently, a much softer smile coming onto her face. Sora reciprocated by shimmying over and giving her a hug, one the woman returned. "Sorry that you never knew me growing up, but I was already a Hunter-nin when I found out that I was expecting, I'd already killed plenty of people who had others that would love to get revenge on me. I didn't want even the slightest chance of them coming after you, so I had you, then let your father take you." Karatachi then sighed softly, leaning her head down to rest on top of Sora's.

"Then I had a chance to see you face-to-face and I took it. And when I did, and I saw how much you'd grown, I couldn't help myself, I wanted to spend more time with you, so I thought up the idea of you joining me as a Hunter-nin. It would be dangerous, I knew that, but you were already so strong at such a young age, and I thought that you'd be able to grow and thrive there, becoming strong enough that I could tell you who I was without fearing that you'd be taken away." Sora tipped her head up to look at Karatachi's face, frowning when she noticed that her mother was sad. Immediately Sora reached up and wrapped her arms around her neck, cuddling into her shoulder.

"I'm happy you did."


With those emotional moments handled and the truth revealed, the three of them finished their forms, interspersed with plenty of curious questions both from Karatachi and Sora about different aspects of their lives.

It was slightly embarrassing for her to admit that her first thought when she saw Karatachi was that she was looking at the most deadly and awesome woman she had ever seen in her life, but the positively gleeful look on her mother's face more than made up for a few moments of reddened cheeks. When they were done, it was then a surprisingly simple transition for them to be released into Konohagakure itself, guided by a Chunin to a temporary accommodation they could stay at until they found a home of their own.

Her father had brought all of their assets that he could, but with how short-notice their escape from Mizu no Kuni was, he obviously couldn't bring everything. That meant for the time being they'd be living out of a fairly cramped little apartment in the middle of the village until they could find a place to call home, but that didn't really matter to Sora.

What mattered more was that she was in a rather odd situation in terms of being an ex-kunoichi, which meant that for all intents and purposes she could make her own decisions, but was also a civilian with parents who held parental responsibility over her since as a civilian she wasn't yet 16, which was the age of majority in the Elemental Nations, people grew up faster there after all, it wasn't a very friendly land to live in.

Though she was genuinely lucky enough to have parents who respected her freedom and were happy to let her do what she wanted to do. Her father had brought up, ever so briefly, the idea of her attending civilian school and learning regular skills. That idea was very quickly put down by Sora, as she was most definitely not interested into going back into school for another few years amongst a bunch of regular civilian kids.

That then left her in the position of trying to figure out what she was going to do next. Her spare time would be training herself, sure, but she didn't want to just do that and let her parents provide for her, that was a bitchy move to make. Since she was legally an adult and could choose to do so, she wanted to find something that she would enjoy doing, but that would also support her parents in turn.

Being confronted directly with a host of civilian jobs made it obvious to Sora that honestly, she really lacked any sort of typical skills. She wasn't an architect or a mason or a gardener, all she really knew was fighting. Sure, she also knew a little bit about forging because of her crafting proficiency, but not enough to really be useful to anyone. Working as a shop attendant sounded like an absolutely stupid idea to her, she would probably lose her mind through sheer boredom for such a stationary and passive job, where things like 'the customer is always right' existed.

She then turned her thoughts towards animals. She had her animal husbandry perk, and it amused her a little to know that she caused a major rat infestation in Kirigakure with her hasty actions, so perhaps she could find work of that sort. The Inuzuka she knew had animals, so perhaps they would have work of that sort, handling animals that they weren't bonded with but would still be there, bitches and other such animals. The only problem was that with her status as an ex-Kiri-nin she would very likely find a lot of doors slammed in her face, especially the doors of clans.

Sighing, Sora got up from where she had been sat using a notepad to write then cross off ideas she came up with. "I'm going to go take a walk, okay?" Her mother waved her goodbye as she exited, her father having already secured a job at the hospital. Under probation just like the rest of them, he wasn't going to be given anything important until they were sure about his loyalty, but he was at least making some ryo for them, while her mother was searching for work that she wanted to do, just as Sora was.

After stepping outside of their small accommodation, Sora glanced around, her eyes fixing themselves to the colossal Hokage monument for a moment before she turned and headed down the small spiral staircase that led down to the ground, from there down the street and onto the next. She had no plan for where she was going, since the only places she knew of in Konoha so far were the nearest shop where she could get essentials, the nearest training ground that she could use, and where the hospital was, in case she decided she decided to devote her time to being a doctor or something.

Only moving her eyes a little, Sora opened up her menu and perused it for a while. Finding an option that would let her play music, she examined it a little closer. Then, just as she was doing so, a memory came to her mind, of that Hunter-nin Recruit who had called her singing nice. He was saying it sarcastically, he obviously didn't care and was just speaking up to make her feel embarrassed at being caught singing, but...well, what about singing?

She enjoyed doing it, so that was a plus. Doing so in front of a group of people wouldn't be a big deal to her, not if she was deliberately doing so. And with her knowledge of songs, she could bring a style of music to the Elemental Nations that had never been heard before. The only issue was that, well, most of the songs she knew required too many instruments, so would either need a big band to play, or a computer, and while the Elemental Nations were at the level of radios and whatnot, they weren't...well, maybe they were able to do so.

Her idea was that she could learn the different instruments she would need, likely relying on her proficiencies to help her, record each one for the bits she would need, then play those together and would sing live whilst the instruments would be those recordings. Or maybe she could just be a one-girl-band, pick a song that only needed one instrument like a guitar or a piano, then do that.

The more she thought about it, the more she got excited about it...right up until she realised that she would also have to create the market for it. In all of her years in the Elemental Nations, she hadn't heard of anything like what she was planning, which meant nobody would understand it at first. Music was typically something that the rich listened to, having private musicians who simply played for them. Concerts and the like were not something that existed, so trying to start that kind of thing would be a nightmare.

Maybe at first it could be free? Just to get people introduced to the idea, then she could add an admission fee of two hundred ryo, which was about 30 minutes of pay for a typical labourer. Then as her popularity climbed and people understood the appeal, she could do more, VIP tickets, backstage stuff, all sorts she could do to make it work, to do something that she thought she would genuinely enjoy doing. Then she remembered one small fact that immediately poured cold water over her idea before it could grow from a single spark.

Doing any of that required money, something they really didn't have to spare on a 'new idea'. Demoralised, Sora continued to walk through the streets, until eventually, she came to a stop in front of a closed-up shop with a sign that prominently proclaimed that they were hiring and that those who couldn't wield a hammer and forge metal need not apply.

Glancing up, she read the name of the shop, Terumasa's Forge and Repairs, immediately explaining the whole hammer and forging metal thing. Looking closer at the sign, Sora put a hand to her chin, trying to decide if it was worth it. She knew the barest essentials of forging thanks to her crafting proficiency, though she wasn't sure if it'd be enough to pass whatever test this 'Terumasa' was likely to hit her with. Her physical strength was really quite far above a typical civilian so hammering metal wouldn't be an issue, it was just her actual technical knowledge.

After a few moments, she gave up debating and headed around to the back of the building, as the sign dictated that anyone interested could come up the staircase at the rear and knock on the door. Finding the staircase, Sora was caught by surprise as a man was coming down said staircase, anger clear on his face. Taking a cautious step back, she watched as he also spotted her.

As soon as he did so he laughed loudly, raising a hand from the railing to point at her. "Haha, you think you could get a job here? Dream on kid." Sora immediately narrowed her eyes, though didn't make any kind of aggressive move, all too aware that she was definitely being watched currently, so starting a fight would be a stupid idea. "I mean it, if that old bastard wasn't even willing to give me a shot, do you really think he'd take you on?"

Sora simply shrugged, earning a scoff for her troubles as the man barged past her and out onto the street. A moment later she heard a metallic crashing noise as he struck the metal shop cover with something. A little concerned about what he said, Sora didn't let it affect her resolve, heading up those stairs and to the wooden door at the top. Taking a breath to steady herself, she raised her hand and rapped on the door three times, lowering her hand.

The door opened maybe ten seconds later, and a male face looked around the door, already speaking. "I told you alrea-" He stopped quickly as he realized that she wasn't the man who he had presumably just dismissed, though his expression didn't change. "Here for the job?" She nodded curtly. "Think you can do it?" Sora waited a beat before responding, giving it a moment of genuine thought instead of thoughtlessly just saying she could.

"I can do any heavy lifting and hammering just fine, but my knowledge of actually forging steel only extends as far as forge-welding metal together and how to use flux." The man looked thoughtful as he looked her up and down, the question clear. After all, she was literally under four-foot tall, so proclaiming that her strength was sufficient to do hammering and lifting was a bit of a contradiction. "Ex-kunoichi for reasons I won't say."

"Won't or can't?" He said with an amused tone, opening the door and stepping outside. "Alright gaki, you've got my attention. So, elaborate. Say I have a job to make a dozen kunai, and I have a big slab of metal to use to do it. How would you convert that slab into those kunai while reducing as much wastage as you could?" Picturing that in her head, Sora went over the issue.

Putting the entire block of metal into the forge would be massively wasteful, she would need more fuel and would be needlessly making the unused material more brittle from forging it. But on the other hand, she had to make sure that each kunai was formed with enough excess to be used to sharpen the weapon down, otherwise it'd be too thin. She tussled with the problem for a short while, during which time the man led her down into his forge, insiding of which her gaze was instantly attracted to a handful of books on a shelf, all of which were glowing, indicating that they were all skill books.

Eventually, after acquiring more specifics, such as the weight of the metal slab itself and how much each kunai was expected to weigh, as Kiri used different standard kunai to Konoha, Sora came up with a response to his question. It wasn't as good as she'd like but it seemed good enough to satisfy him. "Alright, now put that to practice. You've got an hour to make the best kunai you can out of this ingot. Use it all if you need to, but if your final product isn't good enough then you've failed." He struck a metal ingot with his fist, then turned and walked to the wall, leaning against it as he watched her. "Starting now."

Sora blinked, then looked at the stone-cold forge, then at the ingot, then back at him, before folding her arms. "An hour. To make a kunai out of an ingot, using a forge which hasn't been lit all day. Are you actually hiring or are you just trying to waste people's time?" The man looked back at her for a moment before smiling, affirming her belief that he was testing her to see if she was just bullshitting him.

If she had, then she would probably have started frantically trying to forge said weapon, but an hour to make a kunai from a cold start like that would be utterly impossible. "Good. Alright, come back here tomorrow at 6am sharp. I'm not starting you off on the forge, you're gonna be holding down the shop in the front for the first few hours while I work back here. Then later on after I've got some projects done we'll switch over. I'll be keeping an eye on you but it'll be up to you to do a mock-order for me. Nothing serious, just melting down some iron to make a few mass-produced kunai in molds. If you do it well, I'll see about showing you a thing or two." Sora smiled, reaching out her hand which he took after a moment, shaking.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning then."


I wonder if anyone knows where that name, Terumasa, cropped up before, and if you do, internet brownies for you ^.^


Name: Sora Metami

Level: 34

Age: 12

Experience: 546/34,000

To Next Level: 33,454

Title: Civilian - +100% increase to civilian-based proficiencies, -25% decrease to shinobi-based proficiencies

Health Points: 2,100 (100 Base HP + (Vitality x Strength)

Regeneration Rate: 70/minute (Health ÷ 30) (Severe or noticed injuries can be chosen to retain scars)

Chakra Points: 2,084 (100 Base CP + (Wisdom x Intelligence)

Regeneration Rate: 69.46*/minute (Chakra ÷ 30)

Strength: 40 (Each point increases melee damage by 1%, adds 1 slot to inventory)

Vitality: 50 (Each point raises poison resistance by 0.1%, reduces need for sleep by 0.1%)

Agility: 50 (Each point increases top speed by 0.1m/s, increases weapon proficiency gain by 1%)

Wisdom: 32 (Each point decreases chakra cost for techniques by 0.1%)

Intelligence: 62 (Each point increases experience gain by 1%)

Luck: 10 (Each point increases the chance of something lucky happening by 0.01%, decreases the chance of something unlucky happening by 0.01%)